Page 6 of Kissed By the Gods
Of course not. They’ll come for us—all of us—because of what happened here today. Because of what I did. We’ll be hunted. But where will we go? There is no safe place.
“I’m so sorry, Seb. I’m sorry for what I did, for what happened. I didn’t mean to, I just …” What? I just what? There was nothing but rage, and now there’s nothing but a hazy cloud of grief that I can’t see my way out of.
Seb has his head lowered, his fingers pressing so firmly into the base of his nose that the tanned skin there turns white from the pressure.
“By Lako’s hells, Leina! Not now! Go pack while I bury them. They deserve that much.” Mother and Father. He has to dig graves and bury our mother and father because of me.
I’m shuddering now, from my toes in my boots to my hands that clutch Leo closer. My knees knock together, though I’m trying to hide it under my dress.
“They’re going to come for us. Maybe if I turn myself in …”
“Think, Leina!” Seb shouts. “Even if they believed you were the one who did this, what would happen to Leo after they execute you and send me to the mines? Who would take care of him, assuming they don’t kill him anyway out of spite?”
No one. No one else would take in another mouth to feed. Not one that can’t work yet.
His voice gentles, but only slightly. He’s not shouting, but he sounds harsh, like he’s talking over sand in his throat. “We don’t have another choice, Leina. Go. Pack. We won’t have much time before someone comes looking for them.”
My voice lowers. “What if they send Altor, Seb?”
Seb rubs the back of his neck and stares up at the sky before bringing his gaze back to land on me. His smile is bitter now, like Mother’s was.
“Well, apparently we have an Altor of our own,” he says, gesturing toward me.
Oh gods. And then everything starts to waver, my vision narrowing in rapid bursts. Seb is reaching for me. Worry lines his face.
What have I done?is my last thought before everything fades, but not into blackness. Instead, I fall into the softest light, the glow from a candle maybe.
Lie down, little one, the night grows deep,
The Veil winds sing, the shadows sleep.
The rivers carry dreams away,
But in the Veil, your soul shall stay.
So fear no dark, and fear no sky,
The Veil will catch you when you fly.
"Songs of the River-Veil," a traditional Selencian cradlesong
CHAPTER THREE
“Seb! Seb! She’s waking up!”Leo is shout-whispering from my side, and that is enough to start a vicious pounding at my temples. I furiously work my eyelids, fighting this suffocating darkness, and when they finally lift a fraction, sunlight is dappling through a thick cover of trees. Forest. We’re in the Weeping Forest.
My eyelids fall back down, and I drag a deep breath in through my nose, expecting to smell the crisp coolness of the leaves, the musk of good soil, and sweet pine. Instead, I smell incense and wax and just a hint of something …old. I try to reach out to comfort Leo, but my arm won’t move. I fight to open my eyelids again, but they remain fused shut. Panic blossoms in my chest, my heart squeezing.
I flail, trying to thrash my entire body. I manage to lift a finger.
Finally, when I open my eyes again, Leo’s face peers down on me, his eyes full of tears and his lips drawn in a worried frown. I draw in another breath, and cloying incense is gone, replaced by the freshness of the forest.
It was a dream.
It’s the first dream I’ve had in six years that wasn’t about Irielle, Levvi, or Alden. But still. Just a dream.
